I know this one...
Boy the way Glen Miller played,
Songs that made the hit parade,
Guys like us we had it made,
Those were the days,
And you know where you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again,
Didn’t need no welfare states
Everybody pulled his weight,
Gee our old Lasalle ran great,
Those were the days
Like the song, it never really happened that way. As soon as someone tries to have that type of conversation someone always shows up to insert the official counter narrative that they were paid to project.
Our memories of the old days always tend to bury the unpleasant and magnify what we enjoy.
“Didn’t need no welfare states
Everybody pulled his weight,
Gee our old Lasalle ran great,
Those were the days”
You must have started watching “All in the Family” several years after it originally started. I had recorded the original version of that song with Archie singing and Dingbat playing the piano. However, in 1993 we had a house fire and the VHS tape recording was destroyed.
Here are the actual lyrics which I remember vividly:
Didn’t need no welfare stakes.
Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee I loathe a sour ingrate
Those were the days.
After complaints from the usual suspects, the sour ingrates, the lyrics were changed.